Portland Murders and the Reaction of Prominent Muslims

When I read about two innocent men who were killed by a white supremacist because they defended two Muslim women, my heart sank for their families as I could see myself doing this in a similar situation.

For Muslims or Jews or Christians or Hindus or Baha'is.

Because no individual should be subjected to any public pressure for their beliefs.

Let alone be punished for them.

And I don't believe in a deity.

Then I thought that maybe this could be a turning point for Islamic associations.

Here is a perfect example of Islamophobia and extremely decent behavior by non-Muslims, I said to myself.

Connect the dots and do something about it.

If I were a Muslim and if I was interested in changing people's perception of my religion you know what I would do?

I would start the mother of all fundraisers for the families of the victims.

To tell the world that "we" appreciate their heroism and we will reward people who stick up for "us."

I Googled it.

Do you know how many Islamic organizations reacted?

Just one.

And try to find the fundraiser on their site.

Not easy, is it?

In fact I couldn't find it. I am taking the Independent's word for it.

Incidentally, originally they had a $50,000 fundraiser in mind.

For a father of four and a promising young man who had their throat slashed to protect two Muslim women they did not know.

The association revised their fundraiser upwards to 200,000 as roughly 4,000 people contributed and they are now at $160,000.

Or at least that's what the Independent says they are.

My question is this: where is everybody else?

Where are the wealthy Gulf folks who keep complaining about Islamophobia in the West?

Where is Walid bin Talal?

Where is King Salman who wrote a cheque for almost $400 billion last week for the military industrial complex.

Good on you mates!

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UPDATE

Since I posted this a couple of fundraisers showed up on GoFundMe site. One was by Nick Zukin who wrote that

I started this because I was looking around for somewhere to donate to the families of these heroic victims and couldn't find anywhere.  I lamented this online and then thought, well, why shouldn't I just do it.  So I did.

The other was started by Carlos Espinoza on behalf of Micah Fletcher, the third victim who was hospitalized to cover his medical expenses.

As far as I can tell these two men are just ordinary Americans who wanted to express some solidarity for their fellow human beings.

Which  makes my point about the disinterest shown by wealthy Muslims and Muslim associations even starker.